Pre-conference InstituteSupporting Adopted Youth to Maintain Openness Connections with Birth Family and Communities

1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Elizabeth McCarty, Counsel, Office of the Children’s Lawyer; Jennifer Gallagher, Counsel, Office of the Children’s Lawyer; Pat Convery, Executive Director,Adoption Council of Ontario; Maryanne King, Adoption Practitioner, Birth Parent Counsellor, Accredited Family Mediator (OAFM) and Family Group ConferenceCoordinator; and Tara Noble, Registered Social Worker & Grief Counsellor will present on the challenges creating plans for adopted youth who benefit frompositive connections with their birth family members and their culture.

New Professionals EventChoosing and Working with Assessors, Mediators and Other Family Professionals

4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.

Christine Kim, Registered Social Worker, Accredited Family Mediator (OAFM), Julie Hannaford, Lawyer, and Justice Wendy Malcom, Senior Advisory FamilyJudge of the Ontario Court of Justice will speak from an interdisciplinary perspective designed to provide counsel and family professionals working in family law matters with guidance on best practices in working with each other.

10th AnniversaryEvening of Excellence – 10 in 10 Awards

Cocktails: 4:45 p.m. to 6:15 p.m.

Dinner: 6:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Join AFCC Ontario Chapter as we celebrate our 10 year anniversary at an elegant dinner at Toronto’s historic National Club. Ten Awards of Excellence will be given tothe leading Judges, Mediators, Psychologists, Social Workers, Lawyers and Academics who have influenced the sphere of family justice over the past ten years.Dinner will begin with a cocktail hour. Dress is business attire.

Dr. Michael Ungar is among the best known writers and researchers on the topic of resilience in the world. His work has changed the way resilience is understood, shifting the focus from individual traits to the interactions between people and their families, schools, workplaces, and communities. As the Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience and Professor of Social Work at Dalhousie University, as well as a family therapist, he has helped to determine the most important factors that influence the resilience of children and adults during periods of transition and stress.

From Traffic Lights to Traffic Circles: A Clinical / Legal Intersection Model for the Children of High Conflict Separations

Emily Comor, Family Lawyer and Mediator, OCL Panel Member , Co-Chair of the Ottawa High Conflict Forum and Victoria Norgaard, Social Worker, and OCL PanelMember.

Win-Win is an Attitude, Not an Outcome: Family Mediation in OntarioPresentation on AFCC Ontario Research

4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Dr. Denise Whitehead, Assistant Professor in Sexuality, Marriage and Family Studies at St. Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo, JD, Ph.D. inFamily Relations and Human Development and Dr. Rachel Birnbaum, Ph.D., LL.M, Professor, King’s School of Social Work at Western University will sharefindings from the research taking place on family mediation.